Go and Make Mimics!

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Join in imitating me, Paul entreats us, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. Examples of grace, mercy and peace from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Who do you look up to in life?

Which Superhero did you dress up as when you were a kid? Did anyone desire to be like Mike during the 90’s? When asked what you wanted to be when you grew up did you give answers such as wanting to be a police officer or a firefighter?

C.S. Lewis once remarked that since children will witness and see so much evil in life, that they should therefore hear stories of great heroes who stood up to terrible darkness, just so they would have examples in life to emulate.

But it is not just children that need this, but every age group as well. Language, habits, mannerisms, wisdom, likes and dislikes, these are all picked up by watching others. So, like it or not, we are products of the world around us. We feed into the culture that we live in, and then that culture feeds back into us.

This is how we should think about the Church as well. It is what Paul encourages throughout his letters, but especially in Philippians. He calls the Philippians to imitate him and to watch those who set the example. In chapter two he calls everyone to have the mind of Christ. This is only done by imitating. This is one of the reasons we should pay more attention to the Saints, today for example, being St. Patrick’s day. He was sold into slavery, escaped, but came back and brought love and forgiveness in Christ to his former captors as a missionary.

But we can ask closer to home.

Who do you emulate here in this congregation?

Is there a Christian here whom you desire to be like? There should be. Who do you mimic here? Who sets the example? While you think, I will list some from my life in the church.

I remember George Crock, as a kid, who would ask me after every church service what I heard, and if I could say something about a hymn or the reading, or the sermon then he would give me a tootsie roll. He soon moved away, but in the waning months of my time in Michigan, we reconnected when he moved back to the area. He found out that I was leaving to become a Pastor, and my last conversation with him before I left and before he died a few months later was him encouraging me to always stay in the Word. He set the example in repentance, he was someone to mimic.

I remember also Dotty Cress. She was a widow, a Pastor’s wife herself in life, and during my time in High School we became good friends to the point that we picked her up for church and monthly had lunch with her. We joked together that she was my church grandma. She had a lot of advice for me as a wannabe Pastor, and through the lessons she had learned as a Pastor’s wife, she told me the dangers of neglecting Rebecca, my soon to be wife, and any kids that might come along and that are now here.

Dotty too is now with the Lord, but a memory from her that sticks out to me was when her friends told me at her funeral that Dotty prayed for 3 hours every morning. And in those prayers, she devoted 30 minutes to me and my family. Every day. She set the example for me in prayer. There is someone to mimic.

I remember also during my internship year in Ste. Genevieve Missouri, two years ago. I was a Vicar at the time, and I remember all of them fondly down there at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, especially a man, our brother in Christ, named Martin Radmer. He is in his mid-90’s, but during our weekly bible classes, I soon discovered that Martin was a walking, talking, living Bible. He knows the bible better much better than even I do.

I remember times when I would sit there struggling to remember where something was, and Martin would quote it chapter and verse. During one of our talks, he told me that his dream in life and prayer to God was for him to be half the Christian that his Father was, and now I still find myself praying to God to be half the Christian Martin Radmer is.

Finally, a story from here that comes to mind is when Jan Thomas told me that she was with Audrey Wichmann in the hospital during her last hours and that she prayed with her all the prayers that they knew together for hours. What an example to imitate. I pray that when my time comes that I have a brother or sister in Christ to be with me and pray for hours with me when I can no longer pray.

There are many more of course, but time constrains me. I could tell stories of my parents, my wife Rebecca, Pastor Lauer, Pastor Ulm, Pastor Hess, Pastor Bahn, Tammy, Dana, Sandy, Carole, Jack, Ed, the SaLT group, PUPPETS and so many others. So many brothers and sisters in Christ whom God has put here and there as examples.

From here there are two important things to note.

First, those who we might mimic are not always those who are older than us, it is those who are more mature in the faith.

And second thing to note is the purpose of imitating.

We soon realize that the people we mimic first learned to mimic someone else. And what everyone seeks to mimic is Christ. Paul in our Scripture reading is not telling people to imitate him simply because he is Paul. But rather because Paul is imitating Christ. Paul who would also be beaten, like Christ. Mocked like Christ. Ridiculed, like Christ. Sent to Prison, like Christ. and eventually killed because of the Gospel, like Christ. Paul’s life started to look like Jesus’ life.

We should find those to imitate who closely look like Jesus.

And that right there is key. We begin to look like the ones that we mimic. So, as we follow Jesus, we will begin to see that our lives will begin to look like Christ’s life. Therefore, we are called to die with Christ. This is what it means to pick up your cross and follow Christ. Life is all about looking like our Lord.

So in the end, the Christians we mimic end up teaching us about the faith. And their example also teaches us about Jesus.

Therefore, there is a close connection between imitating and discipleship. Which also means that imitating and mimicking have a direct bearing on how we should go about making disciples.

Because making disciples is the purpose that our Lord has charged us with here at Christ Lutheran Church. That is the chief task that overrides all other tasks. It is why you are sitting here right? You want to be disciples. You have heard the call of Christ, you have repented of your sins, received his forgiveness, been made his child in the waters of baptism, receive Christ in this sacrament and now you desire to follow Christ wherever he goes.

If being Christ’s disciples is why you are here, then I implore you to listen to what I have to say next.

The trick to making disciples is to imitate the behavior and actions.

The way to make Christians is by having new Christians look to the more experienced Christians. Those of you who have sat in these pews for a while are to set the example. You are to show forth that love, that forgiveness, that joy. We look to you to see how you pray, how you worship, and whether we see you gathering to study God’s Word for Bible Class. The previous generation must tell the deeds of the Lord to the coming generation. Disciples are made through examples. And the best examples are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. That is the only way we learn and grow as disciples, by watching others.

This is seen most evidently in children. And it is why Jesus sets a child in the midst of his disciples as the chief example of discipleship.

For instance, ask yourself how children learn language. It is the most miraculous thing in life is watching a child learn language. They learn by watching mom and dad over a long period of time. Eventually they begin to mimic and repeat what they hear. Soon enough they know enough words to begin making thoughts and sentences, and it only grows from there. All of life is learned from mimicking.

That is the secret. You mimic and repeat and eventually you understand. If you wanted to learn a language, the best thing that you can do is to throw yourself into that culture and watch people speak the language and listen to how it sounds and then repeat it. Because your survival depends on it, eventually it sticks on you.

No one learns a language by sitting down in a classroom with a textbook for an hour each day to conjugate verbs. The only people crazy to think that’s how you learn a language are universities and schools.

Imitation should make us think about how we do Confirmation and Sunday School.

When we rip Luther’s Small Catechism and the Scriptures out of the natural habitat of the home and in worship and instead treat them as a textbook, it is no wonder that so many young people and parents see the catechism as boring, who eventually leave the church, and wander into oblivion.

What kind of Christians are we making?

We are just as crazy to think we are making disciples as we would if we were trying to teach a language. I fear that for our efforts, all we end up making are Christians who are armed with enough knowledge to be dangerous and Christians who become inoculated to the real deal that is the Christian faith.

When that happens, we lose a generation. We can join with Paul as he weeps and says, “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.”

When the Catechism and the Psalms are no longer on our lips for prayer, we lose the chance to imitate and we lose the ability be make disciples. The church becomes a place where discipleship starts, but isn’t a place where discipleship continues. That is heartbreaking.

So what should we do? First, we repent of our sins. Confess that failure. Look at your life according to the 10 commandments and see the law’s sharp rebuke. And then, once you have done that, then hear this, “I forgive you of all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” You are baptized and washed in Christ.

Second, after that, see this sermon not as a rebuke or as a failure, rather see the opportunity that has been presented to us by God. I need you to see the importance of setting examples and imitating.

Confirmation, Sunday School, and even Bible Class should be seen as opportunities where we learn to mimic and make habits. Potlucks and meals here become important places of giving thanks and learning how the family of faith lives. Memorization is seen as the gateway into learning the life of faith that awaits. Imitation is holistic.

For those of you who are Sunday School Teachers. First thank you for being Teachers. And second, you can and should impress habits and set an example. And use stories in Scripture to back up that example. Show your kids in class how you pray and what you pray for. Teach them to write their own.

For us as a congregation, the greatest evangelism project is not half a world away, but exists in our children. Parents you are the key to this. Our kids are never too young to hear the Creeds, the Lord’s Prayer, to hear Psalms or sing hymns. Make them bedtime habits. As for Confirmation, perhaps it is time to rethink how and what we do, to make it more evident how the faith is something that covers all aspects of life and must be imitated in order to make disciples.

As a church, as a congregation, this is much to think about and walk together with. It demands that we live in a different way then our American society oftentimes paints life.

What can we do to create a community that lives by our conviction of the Gospel?

that’s why Paul writes, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from heaven, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like, or rather, to imitate, his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” We are Americans second, Christians first.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters in Christ here at Christ Lutheran, whom I love and long for, you who are my joy and my crown, you who are my pleasure to be your pastor and shepherd in Christ, and for whom I pray that I set a good example for you to imitate as well, I plead with you, stand firm thus in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Amen.

May the peace that surpasses all understanding, keep and guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.